RAPS-China: Programming This application (including the thematic mapping module) was custom programmed by the author with Delphi 7 Professional. This is a Pascal-based, compiled programming language, which produces highly optimized, executable code (*.exe - Files). The database consists of simple, semicolon-delimited ASCII data files. These data files are completely open and transparent in their structure to the user. They can be edited with any standard text editor (such as MS-Notepad, MS-WordPad), text processor (MS-Word) or spreadsheet (MS-EXCEL), etc. The various data files are managed by the RAPS software to emulate basic database functions. Despite the simple data structure, the data can be easily sorted and filtered by various criteria in the RAPS-China tool. This simple database structure was used to make the data input completely transparent and editable to the user. The "About," "Help" and "View Results" modules were developed as Web documents (standard HTML-Format). They can be used outside the RAPS application with any standard Web Browser (such as MS-Internet Explorer). Heilig, G.K. (2004): RAPS-China. A Regional Analysis and Planning System. Laxenburg, Austria